Hello, My name is Julia and I am a 20-year-old first-year student at the University of Chicago. While my major is as of yet still undecided, I have a strong interest in Latin American languages and culture and spent a year before college - a "gap year" that the University permitted me to take after my senior year of high school - in Ecuador volunteering for Habitat for Humanity in their national office in Quito doing public relations work, translation, and development research. In all, I am in my ninth year studying and speaking Spanish and will continue to do so in order to graduate with at least a minor, if not a major, in the language.

In addition, I have begun to learn Portuguese and am a Salsa-dancing fanatic! I
was also recently named co-captain of the University of Chicago Women's Club Ice Hockey Team, and have been giving skating lessons all winter to raise money for the team. My other strengths include my writing skills, which in High School earned me the award for Excellence in Writing as well as an honorable mention for Excellence in English. In high school I also volunteered as a reading tutor for elementary
school students at an inner-city public school in Boston, MA,my hometown, and I found the experience to be extremely rewarding and fun. However, I have also had experience tutoring older students, as my most recent Ice Hockey tutee was a 24-year old Graduate Student who had never worn skates. Again, the experience was thoroughly enjoyable, and after only five hour-long lessons he had learned not only to power skate but to stop, turn, and even skate backwards.

I am a very patient person and am willing to work at whatever speed is most comfortable for the student.